UROP Openings

Term:

Summer

Department:

16: Aeronautics and Astronautics

Faculty Supervisor:

Prof. Edward Crawley

Faculty email:

crawley@MIT.EDU

Apply by:

Contact:

Juan Jose Garau (PhD Student), garau@mit.edu

Project Description

The System Architecture Group within the Engineering Systems Lab in AeroAstro is looking for one UROP to work on an exciting project on resource management algorithms and visualization tools for communication satellites. The UROP will join an ongoing sponsored research project with SES, the largest satellite operator worldwide. The project aims to develop an autonomous dynamic resource allocation and demand prediction tool for their new fleet of flexible high-throughput satellites.
This project started 2 years ago; so far, we have mainly focused on modelling tasks and algorithm development for individual subsystems of this complex tool. At this point our efforts are two-fold: further characterize and improve the algorithms already developed, and start integration tasks between the different subsystems. Due to the high complexity of the problem, we would like to have a UROP to work on some of the algorithm improvement tasks and with our interactive visualization toolbox, which we want to extend as part of our integration efforts. There will be a clearly defined work package for the UROP before starting, and a PhD student in the project will be the direct supervisor. Depending on the UROP background and project needs, this work package will be focused on one or more of these areas:
· Result integration visuals and front-end GUI for demand forecasting
· Beam placement algorithm improvement and extension
· Frequency assignment algorithm improvement and extension
· Sensitivity analyses and “data smoothing”
· Studies on off-nominal operations and risk characterization

Pre-requisites

· Excited to work on a real and impactful project in close collaboration with the company
· Creativity and out of the box thinking
· Experience in Python
· Basic knowledge of optimization methods
· Knowledge in RF communication is a plus